Russian Cryonics Couple Danila Medvedev and Valerija Udalova’s Bad Breakup Led to Heist Of Frozen Brains

It was a heat day for a heist, a minimum of by Moscow requirements, which issues when you’re allegedly stealing frozen human bodies.

On Sept. 7, a 61-year-old physicist and a crew of males working for her snipped the locks on a gate resulting in Europe’s solely cryonics storage heart. Valerija Udalova, who makes a speciality of thermodynamics, wore a trench coat as she pointed the employees to a corrugated metallic warehouse on the outskirts of town.

Utilizing a welding torch, they reduce by a wall of the constructing owned by KrioRus—a agency that deep-freezes the brains and our bodies of rich folks within the hope that scientists sooner or later will convey them again to life.

One after the other, they drained liquid nitrogen from the huge fiberglass vats, sending plumes of white vapor into the air, in line with video footage and Udalova’s personal account. Then they loaded dozens of corpses onto a truck with a crane and tried to drive away with them.

Police shortly stopped Udalova—just for her to strike once more efficiently two months later, in line with the agency’s co-founder, 42-year-old Danila Medvedev.

However Udalova is not any widespread criminal. She’s a co-founder of KrioRus and Medvedev’s ex-wife, who was allegedly ousted as normal director of the agency final yr, Medvedev stated.

The alleged physique snatching has sparked a weird feud between the previous Russian energy couple—two shrewd and good entrepreneurs, who each declare they’re legally entitled to the corporate’s 50 brains and 26 our bodies, in line with interviews with each co-founders, together with a former co-worker and courtroom paperwork.

The story has unfolded like a sci-fi novel, a criminal offense caper and telenovela rolled into one—with Medvedev swiping again a load of brains amid murky legal guidelines, and the previous lovebirds going to nice lengths to grab management of the corporate.

“She was holding these sufferers hostage,” Medvedev stated, including that purchasers have suffered. “We have been actually stunned and upset—after which some loopy issues occurred.”

“Medvedev believed a lot in cryogenics, he had his personal grandmother’s mind frozen.”

Medvedev says his ex raided the warehouse to spice up the “physique rely” of a brand new cryogenics firm, which she launched after being booted as director of KrioRus. It was a crafty transfer within the area of interest trade, the place the extra brains and corpses you might have, the higher your repute and credibility, he stated.

“They have been used as a weapon in gaining management,” he stated. “It’s clear what she’s doing can be a textbook case of persona dysfunction.”

However Udalova insists she’s nonetheless the director of KrioRus and easily needed to maneuver the our bodies to a greater storage facility. She says taking them was “completely authorized” though her ex briefly managed to persuade cops in any other case.

“He doesn’t respect anyone; he doesn’t respect the regulation,” she stated. “He thinks he’s the emperor of the galaxy.”

However the two weren’t all the time at every others’ throats. Once they met at a transhumanist assembly in Moscow in 2005, each have been passionate concerning the idea of everlasting life.

They bonded over the motion, which advocates immortality by technological enhancement comparable to anti-aging units and artificial intelligence.

Medvedev, then 24, was interested in Udalova’s thoughts and her go-getter persona. Udalova, then 44, was match and charismatic with a level from the famend Moscow Institute of Physics and Know-how. She was a canine particular person, who performed in a rock band and appeared youthful than her age.

Medvedev, who had a background as an funding banker, was bookish and vivid with reddish chin scruff. He was assured within the enterprise world however a bit naive with girls, which can have been a part of his attraction.

Regardless of their age hole, they may speak for hours about science, the long run and ridding the world of loss of life. “She had a great creativeness and he or she was sensible. She was all the time prepared to go on any dialogue trajectory,” Medvedev stated of their early days collectively. “She was very open-minded.”

As they started relationship, he noticed in her greater than a romantic accomplice. “She would get right down to enterprise, [saying] ‘Let’s do that occasion or begin this venture.’ She was all the time as much as it, and that was what I needed and wanted.”

They based KrioRus in Might 2006 and ultimately moved in collectively. Initially the agency froze only some folks and pets in vacuum-sealed cylindrical containers generally known as dewars. The so-called “sufferers” have been saved the other way up at -320 levels Fahrenheit with liquid nitrogen, which halts molecular and atomic exercise, successfully stopping time.

The corporate—which now prices $36,000 for “full-body” preservation, and $15,000 for only a mind—doesn’t assure purchasers could be introduced again to life. It gives preservation for a future date, presumably when superior medical know-how makes it potential.

As the idea goes, a deep-frozen mind will retain an individual’s persona, reminiscences and emotions. That information may then be transferred into a brand new wholesome physique, or uploaded into a pc as soon as the know-how exists.

On the job, the couple have been a great crew at first. Medvedev believed a lot in cryogenics, he had his personal grandmother’s mind frozen, he advised me. Udalova’s late canine, Alice, turned the corporate’s first canine shopper. “We needed to run it as a type of storage operation, like activism science slash enterprise,” stated Medvedev.

“KrioRus quickly grew to 25 full-body sufferers and 50 ‘neuropatients’—severed heads saved in stockpot-sized containers—and roughly 20 cats, canines and birds.”

The pair had totally different strengths professionally. Medvedev, who’s fluent in English, was a public relations whiz and dealt with some venture administration. Udalova had a deep understanding of the science and upkeep of the our bodies, and was in command of gross sales.

In 2009, Udalova turned normal director of the corporate, which by then had began to draw wealthy and outstanding purchasers. In the meantime, the couple emerged as leaders in Russia’s transhumanist motion.

However because the agency gained notoriety, Medvedev says Udalova’s poor folks abilities turned his burden. “There have been a number of issues actually flawed about how Valerija approached folks and the way she communicated with others,” he stated. “I used to be all the time making excuses for her and considering it’s my job to guard her—and to elucidate to everyone else that she’s a pleasant particular person.”

For her half, Udalova says she grew annoyed along with her then-partner’s lack of management abilities. “He’s a really unhealthy supervisor and a nasty director. He didn’t need to handle initiatives, he needed to do public relations. He needed glory, he needed energy,” she stated. “He’s an excellent propagandist however not a frontrunner.”

KrioRus quickly grew to 25 full-body sufferers and 50 “neuropatients”—severed heads saved in stockpot-sized containers—and roughly 20 cats, canines and birds. Purchasers have been largely Russian, together with the previous director of a widely known museum together with medical doctors and legal professionals, with payments usually footed by their family members.

In 2016, Bloomberg Businessweek printed a characteristic about KrioRus, noting it had “grown way more quickly than both of its American opponents,” and garnering the agency worldwide consideration.

However at dwelling Udalova had a controlling streak, in line with Medvedev. “She was all the time making an attempt to restrict my communications with others no matter whether or not it was romantic or pleasant or skilled,” he stated.

Medvedev had by no means been in a long-term relationship earlier than her, and he generally second-guessed himself about whether or not her calls for have been unreasonable. “I didn’t actually have a lot expertise to check to her,” he stated. “I wasn’t ready that any person may be manipulative.”

Rigidity over energy dynamics quickly bubbled up. “She would get indignant at conditions after I would query her authority,” he stated.

The couple stopped with the ability to speak brazenly and as soon as, after a blowout, Udalova disappeared for days with out contact, he stated. The on-again, off-again nature of their romance weighed on Medvedev. In 2017, they separated however continued to work collectively. (The couple have been by no means legally married, although they referred to one another as husband and spouse.)

Udalova stated their age distinction led to the separation, and hinted different girls could have performed a task. “I’m 20 years older and there are such a lot of temptations round,” she stated. “Danila could be very narcissistic. After a few years of being in love, I started to note his flaws. This hastened our parting.”

She added, “He loves solely himself. Perhaps women, too, however that’s one other story.”

“She seized the brains of fifty sufferers—together with Medvedev’s personal grandma’s mind—and took them to a secret location.”

For months, the pair remained civil at work and largely managed to keep away from day-to-day interplay. Each advised me their breakup was not associated to the feud over frozen stays.

However in 2019, Medvedev began making strikes to get her booted as director.

He claims she was unproductive and indecisive about elevating cash, and that the corporate wanted a change. “I mentioned this with different house owners of the corporate and we determined we must always change the director—however it turned out she had totally different concepts,” he stated.

Others weren’t glad along with her efficiency, both. At a shareholders assembly in 2019, she offered a grim monetary report, in line with Dmitry Kvasnikov, who previously labored at KrioRus as a enterprise growth supervisor.

“She squandered all the cash within the firm,” he stated. “It’s not that she stole it, she simply mismanaged it. She was not competent sufficient to allocate the cash correctly.”

Round that point, many of the firm’s shareholders voted her out as director however she refused to simply accept it, Kvasnikov stated. “Sixty p.c needed to take away her. However earlier than they may signal the papers she took them so that they couldn’t.”

He added, “I don’t suppose she is inherently unhealthy; she is simply misguided. She doesn’t need to work with anybody who doesn’t agree along with her.”

Udalova contends she dealt with the agency’s funds effectively, contemplating the challenges of the weird area. “I managed the corporate’s cash correctly. Cryonics is troublesome to develop. I believe nobody however me may develop cryonics in such troublesome circumstances,” she stated. “Sure, certainly, Danila made an try to fireplace me, however it was unlawful.”

As help for her management appeared to wane, Udalova made a daring transfer. She seized the brains of fifty sufferers—together with Medvedev’s personal grandma’s mind—and took them to a secret location in late 2019, in line with Medvedev and Udalova.

She additionally transferred a few of KrioRus’ belongings to a brand new firm, “muddying the waters” legally, Medvedev stated. “To police and to the courts, it turns into slightly extra sophisticated than when you simply take one thing and run with it,” he stated. “It turns into a grey space.”

Udalova contends she moved the brains for the higher of the corporate’s purchasers.

“It’s higher for cryopatients to not be within the soiled arms of a mediocre supervisor who thinks solely about his personal acquire,” she stated.

However the agency’s full-body sufferers—which have been heavier and harder-to-transport—remained untouched.

When Udalova’s time period as director expired in September 2021, she was not voted again as director, in line with Medvedev. (Firm paperwork present her time period as director expired in June 2021.)

Udalova, nevertheless, insists she nonetheless holds the place, citing tax paperwork that seem to listing her as the present director.

Both method, they each agree on what occurred subsequent. On Sept. 7, Udalova and her staff reduce by the wall of the storage heart in Moscow, drained the dewars to lighten them, then tried to drive off with the 25 frozen full-body corpses.

Because the alleged heist unfolded, the son of the land proprietor alerted Medvedev, who known as police. Medvedev, who claims he personally owns the cryogenic gear, offered cops with paperwork.

Police decided Udalova had no grounds to take the our bodies and the vans have been shortly “detained” by cops, in line with the Russian media outlet vc.ru.

A video quickly surfaced exhibiting authorities apparently escorting Udalova off the property. “Russian police cease transhumanist who tried to steal frozen human corpses,” the science information web site biohackinfo.com proclaimed in a headline.

“Contained in the constructing —a bare-bones construction surrounded by bushes—he discovered the severed heads of sufferers Udalova had taken in 2019.”

After I requested Udalova why she went to such excessive measures to take the our bodies, she laughed. She stated the warehouse was solely about 210 sq. ft and that the corpses wanted to be moved to an upgraded facility. Medvedev had beforehand “locked all doorways, and didn’t give us keys,” she stated, forcing her to chop by the wall of the warehouse.

“Excuse me however Danila is just not the proprietor of the constructing. He isn’t the proprietor of the dewars or the cryonics sufferers,” she stated. “KrioRus is the proprietor and, as a director, I made a decision that this place is simply too small.”

“It was essential [and] completely authorized,” she stated.

Not lengthy after her run-in with cops, police advised Medvedev they couldn’t press prices. Russian regulation forbids the “possession” of human our bodies—a rule enacted to fight unlawful organ transplants—making it troublesome to arrest her for theft, Medvedev stated. “The police didn’t need to get into this as a result of it’s not clear the way it’s regulated,” Medvedev stated. “You can not say she ‘stole’ our bodies since you can not truly ‘personal’ them.”

The struggle shifted as an alternative to a battle over the high-priced cryogenics gear utilized by the corporate, which Medvedev claimed to personal. However in a memo to police and prosecutors, Udalova wrote that the dewars “by no means belonged to… Medvedev, or every other authorized entity or particular person,” in line with the doc. (Legislation enforcement in Moscow didn’t return a request for remark)

The our bodies have been ultimately returned to the warehouse however the brains Udalova took in 2019 remained at massive, and police advised Medvedev take her to civil courtroom, he stated.

Then, one way or the other, issues bought weirder.

On Sept. 16, two hulking males allegedly threatened Medvedev outdoors his house, he stated. “[Udalova] and her boyfriend despatched Chechen bandits to my house, making an attempt to scare me into giving up management,” Medvedev stated. “The state of affairs spun uncontrolled.”

The menacing males, who he stated have been captured in footage, allegedly “warned” him to again down from the struggle over the corporate, he stated.

Udalova insists the stunt was staged and that she wasn’t concerned. “I believe they’re actors as a result of they’re so stereotypically Chechen, like within the films … They’d lengthy black beards with evil eyes,” she stated.

She added, “I didn’t do it. Perhaps one in all my followers did it, however I don’t know something about it.”

If the harassment was purported to frighten Medvedev, it solely emboldened him.

With no assist from cops, he took issues into his personal arms.

In late September, he and a crew of novice investigators tracked down a chunk of land owned by Udalova in Tver, roughly 2.5 hours by automotive from Moscow. Contained in the constructing —a bare-bones construction surrounded by bushes—he discovered the severed heads of sufferers Udalova had taken in 2019, he stated.

“It was a half-complete constructing with 50 p.c of the partitions nonetheless lacking, no doorways, no home windows, no gates … standing there mainly in the midst of a forest,” he stated.

There was nothing to cease him from enacting cowboy justice, and easily snatching them again, he stated. “We took the dewars with the neuropatients and moved them to Moscow,” he stated.

Udalova fired again two months later. This time, she seized the 25 full-body sufferers she’d didn’t tackle Sept. 7. She moved them to a cryogenics facility in Sergiev Posad, roughly 45 miles from Moscow in late November, in line with Medvedev and Udalova. It was the entire firm’s our bodies, minus one saved individually in a dry ice container.

Within the course of, Medvedev claims she broken the dewars and presumably the corpses. The temperatures of the human stays seemingly dropped once they have been taken off the liquid nitrogen, probably inflicting them to deteriorate, he stated.

Udalova contends they weren’t harm. “I graduated from a really well-known Russian physics institute and my specialization was thermodynamics, so I perceive very effectively what we are able to [do] with our bodies,” she stated. “We did a number of work to stabilize them.”

Hans Bozler, a cryogenics knowledgeable who teaches ultralow temperature physics on the College of Southern California, in contrast eradicating the our bodies to taking meat off ice. “A deterioration can be extremely accelerated inside minutes,” stated Bozler. “It’s the identical as taking out a steak out of the freezer, letting it thaw and refreezing it.”

However their dispute is probably going moot, he stated. Freezing a mind in liquid nitrogen would wipe out the organ’s synapses, zapping away virtually any probability of reviving it, he stated.

“You’re taking one thing that’s already been destroyed and worrying about it being extra destroyed,” stated Bozler, who’s a Professor Emeritus of Physics. “It’s exhausting to take [the claim] significantly as a result of it exists in a world of nonsense.”

Medevev and Udalova are taking it significantly, and have taken the battle to civil courtroom. Medevev claims she iced him out of the agency’s conferences and withheld monetary data, in line with courtroom papers. In November, the Moscow Arbitration Court docket dominated in his favor; she has filed an enchantment.

Finally, he plans to show Udalova dedicated fraud by forging the signatures of shareholders to stay director, and to get her charged criminally, he stated.

“We really feel that for what she did Valerija deserves to go to jail,” he stated. “With out moving into an open confrontation with violence and weapons and explosions, I need this example to be resolved over the following 3 to five months.” (Udalova denies she cast signatures.)

Which may contain getting inventive. He additionally plans to arrange a brand new storage facility, then snatch again the full-body sufferers Udalova nonetheless has in her possession, he stated.

The uncharted fields of tech and science are ripe for scandals just like the one taking part in out at his firm, he stated. “KrioRus is simply the tip of the iceberg,” Medevev stated. “Folks could be grasping, they will assault one another, attempt to sabotage initiatives and steal—a number of that occurs in fields like synthetic intelligence, nanotechnologies and ageing analysis.”

“It’s the identical as taking out a steak out of the freezer, letting it thaw and refreezing it.”

He stated power-hungry “visionaries” like Udalova typically go unchecked as a result of few persons are educated sufficient to function watchdogs or whistleblowers towards them. “There’s something in cryonics which attracts psychopaths,” he stated. “They’ll have very easy accessibility to energy over the kinfolk of sufferers.”

“It’s not wholesome however [psychopaths] do additionally include qualities that permit them to succeed,” he stated.

Udalova, for her half, believes she’s combating to avoid wasting the sector of cryonics from a nefarious power. She has no plans to again down. “Actually, I don’t know the place this battle will probably be in a single yr,” she stated.“[But] I’m completely proper.”

She worries concerning the affect the dispute may have on transhumanism’s repute. She fears it can make the trade look wild and its leaders unhinged. To keep away from related disputes sooner or later, she stated non-profits ought to spearhead the creating area as an alternative of personal companies.

“[Medvedev] is absolutely unhealthy for cryonics as a result of lots of people can see this battle,” she stated. “He has slandered KrioRus.”

Requested how she desires the feud along with her ex to finish, she thought for a second.

“We have to transport Danila to Mars,” she stated, with a straight face. “I ask, please, Elon Musk: Take Danila to Mars.”

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